DON GIOVANNI, MOZART – OPERA – LIVE CHRISTOPH ESCHENBACH, SVEN-ERIC BECHTOLF – WITH ILDEBRANDO D’ARCANGELO (DON GIOVANNI) AND LUCA PISARONI (LEPORELLO) – SALZBURG FESTIVAL

The Salzburg Festival presents Don Giovanni, Mozart and Da Ponte's masterpiece directed for stage by Sven-Eric Bechtolf !

Don Giovanni was premiered in Prague on October 29th 1787. This very successful opera, inspired by the myth of Don Juan, marked the second collaboration with the mercurial librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, after Le Nozze di Figaro.

Meet with the legendary and most incredible seducer of history, who with the help of his valet Leporello, seduced, conquered and abandoned young women. Punished for having killed the Commander, Don Giovanni manages to escape and keeps on seducing women, while sowing anger in Seville. Soon, he has no choice but repent or die.

According to Sven-Eric Bechtolf, who presents this year his production of the opera at the Salzburg Festival, "Don Giovanni is a romantic hero of metaphysical proportions."¹ The stage director does not insist on the cynicism of the character – like it has been done a lot – but also sees Don Giovanni as a person who is craving for freedom and a lack of boundaries in a puritan society.

Don Giovanni is performed by the Italian bass-baritone Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, one of today's leading Mozart singers (like Luca Pisaroni who sings Leporello, and Lenneke Ruiten who performs Donna Anna). Leading the Wiener Philharmoniker is the German conductor Christoph Eschenbach, a heir of George Szell and Herbert von Karajan.

Christoph Eschenbach conductor
Sven-Eric Bechtolf stage director
Rolf Glittenberg set designer
Marianne Glittenberg costumes
Friedrich Rom lighting
Ronny Dietrich dramaturgy
Walter Zeh chorus master

Lenneke Ruiten (Donna Anna)
Anett Fritsch (Donna Elvira)
Valentina Nafornita (Zerlina)
Ildebrando D’Arcangelo (Don Giovanni)
Luca Pisaroni (Leporello)
Tomasz Konieczny (Il Commendatore)
Andrew Staples (Don Ottavio)
Alessio Arduini (Masetto)

Sommerakademie of the Vienna Philharmonic
Philharmonia Chor Wien
Wiener Philharmoniker

http://www.medici.tv/#!/don-giovanni-mozart-salzburg-festival-2014